kumanoki:Train platforms in Japan are built with recesses underneath the platforms that you can get in if you fall or get pushed onto the tracks.

You'd think that would be standard everywhere. That said if no train is coming, you might as well go for the oh shiat ladder opposite the end to where the train arrives.

/also as I said in the other thread, a couple cheap cameras scanning the track and doing automatic obstruction detection would also work//the falling person should be easy to capture via edge detection and then just start tripping red signals or autobraking the trains

If the platform appears flush with the approaching train, you could take shelter in the space between the two sets of train tracks. This is a dangerous choice, though, because you'd have to traverse the third rail, which carries 660 volts of electricity, more than enough to kill a person. A final option is to simply lie flat - there may be enough clearance for the train to pass over you.

If 660 volts is enough to kill a person what the fark are cops doing with 1000000 volt tasters

The trains only go about 45 mph, right? If you run away, and the train slows to 30, 20 or 10 before it hits you, there has to be a point where you can jump and cling to the front without falling under the wheels. Someone call MythBusters.

Jon iz teh kewl:If the platform appears flush with the approaching train, you could take shelter in the space between the two sets of train tracks. This is a dangerous choice, though, because you'd have to traverse the third rail, which carries 660 volts of electricity, more than enough to kill a person. A final option is to simply lie flat - there may be enough clearance for the train to pass over you.

If 660 volts is enough to kill a person what the fark are cops doing with 1000000 volt tasters

It's the total energy that kills you, not the volts. Voltage just happens to be a bigger number than amps, which is more impressive. If they wanted to convert everything into Watts that'd be a much, much bigger number.

Lumpmoose:The trains only go about 45 mph, right? If you run away, and the train slows to 30, 20 or 10 before it hits you, there has to be a point where you can jump and cling to the front without falling under the wheels. Someone call MythBusters.

A reasonably estimate is that a person can sprint 10-15 MPH. I wouldn't place the chances of survival very high, however, with a speed difference of over 10 MPH. You'd also lose a lot of speed jumping and turning around to grab on to the train (otherwise you'd just bounce off and get run over).

Lumpmoose:The trains only go about 45 mph, right? If you run away, and the train slows to 30, 20 or 10 before it hits you, there has to be a point where you can jump and cling to the front without falling under the wheels. Someone call MythBusters.

I was thinking of this EXACT thing while waiting for my train this morning. Because I would assume that, as a train slows down at a station, it isn't the impact that kills you, but being run over/crushed that does it.

Jon iz teh kewl:If the platform appears flush with the approaching train, you could take shelter in the space between the two sets of train tracks. This is a dangerous choice, though, because you'd have to traverse the third rail, which carries 660 volts of electricity, more than enough to kill a person. A final option is to simply lie flat - there may be enough clearance for the train to pass over you.

If 660 volts is enough to kill a person what the fark are cops doing with 1000000 volt tasters

I was on the platform waiting for the same train as this guy. You can be sure that he wasn't smiling.

He was fighting for his life, probably thinking about his little daughter or son waiting by the door for him to get home that evening. Or how he'd been working really hard lately, dedicating himself to his recovery, and how it was all starting to pay off. Or what his wife would like for Christmas.

Looking into his face was like looking through a rip in the very fabric of reality. Underneath our thoughts and emotions is the primal energy that flees insecurity and death with every ounce of its power. I haven't been able to get the spiralling look in his eyes, like hypnotic circles, out of my mind.

I really wish that I could've grabbed him and pulled him up, but it all just looked so surreal in the viewfinder of my iPhone.

Jon iz teh kewl:If the platform appears flush with the approaching train, you could take shelter in the space between the two sets of train tracks. This is a dangerous choice, though, because you'd have to traverse the third rail, which carries 660 volts of electricity, more than enough to kill a person. A final option is to simply lie flat - there may be enough clearance for the train to pass over you.

If 660 volts is enough to kill a person what the fark are cops doing with 1000000 volt tasters

It's not the volts, it's the amps that kill. 660 volts with a shiatload of amps to power the onboard motors will turn you into KFC pretty quickly. 50,000V at .5 amps or whatever is enough to start involuntary muscle spasms and generally piss you off, but not (usually, there are exceptions and everyone's physiology is different) enough to kill you.

"Another way to prepare is to build up your body's resistance to electricity, so you do not have to worry about the third rail. It is kind of like a building up a tolerance for poison by ingesting a little bit at a time. I started years ago shocking myself with small amounts of electricity and then just building up the amps and voltage. This is often what murderers did in the old days, in order to avoid death by the electric chair.

You build up a tolerance quite quickly. Another ancillary benefit is that it seems to have a natural calming effect on the nerves. I suspect I could probably tolerate the third rail, now. Fortunately, I live in a city without a subway, so I don't have to worry about it. But if I go to the big city, I know I will be prepared. "